WTN Services-Freedom to Blog… Why Blog? By Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic’s November Edition
While we have a blog at WTN Services, I am always in suspect of does anyone actually read or blog and does anyone really care of our perspective on matters- wine?
In reading this months Atlantic and after being a guest at a recent Wine Bloggers Conference, I am struck with the idea that this media is rich in connecting the consumer or individual to an idea, brand or company in an ongoing manner and there is true value to blogging and blogging in the wine business, rather B2B or B2C.
In Andrew Sullivans article in the November edition of the Atlantic he stated, “Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics; more free form, more accident prone, less formal and more alive. Blogging is writing out loud.”
A reporter such as Mr. Sullivan or an individual such as myself who is writting to represent the company may feel constrained by the need for rewrites, clearance from legal, editorial etc but with the advent of blogging the word, thought or idea can become real time. I’ll never be a Andrew Sullivan but it is fun to think we have an equal playing field in expressions of thoughts that would not exist without the medium of blogging.
There is risk in real time communications and a closeness of commuinity from real time conversation or thoughts. For media and for companies that trust their staffs and allow for real time blogging without excessive editorial control the payoff in readership and loyality to the blog and brand grow by leaps and bounds. There evolves a trust by the consumer and the business person in those companies that allow the freedom and expression and their soul to show.
Andrew Sullivan is elegant in his words and thoughts that “a blogger” rather political in his case or in my case wine company geek, “will air a variety of thoughts or facts on any subject and in no particular order other then dictated by the passing of time.”
Blogging in his view has created a golden age for journalism. In my mind Blogging has created a new age of expression for those who care to participate and join. “Words of all sorts have never seemed so now” according to Mr. Sullivan that holds true in wine blogs and in life…
Andrew Sullivan is a Atlantic Senior Editor and his blogs can be viewed at andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com